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KEY. JACOB DUCHfi, 

THE FIRST CHAPLAIN OF CONGRESS. 

BY THE REV. EDWARD DUFFIELD NEILL, 

PRESIDENT OP MA.CALBSTER COLLEGE, MINN. 

On the outside of the eastern wall of Saint Peter’s Church 
in Philadelphia, there is a marble tablet in memory of Rev. 
Jacob Duch6, a timid, amiable, and accomplished man, whose 
life was clouded by an error of judgment. As posterity loves 
details, a biographical sketch of this person, fuller of incidents 
than those which have been printed, has been prepared for the 
Magazine of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. 

Jacob Duch£, the younger, was the grandson, not the son 
as Drake states in his Dictionary of Biography, of Anthony 
Duclie, a French Protestant, who came with his wife to Phila¬ 
delphia in the same ship as William Penn. 1 

His father was Colonel Jacob Duchd, a prosperous citizen 
and vestryman of Christ Church, 2 his mother was Mary 
Spence; his parents were married Jan. 13th, 1733-4. His 
mother died when he was quite young, arid on June 5th, 
1747, his father married a widow Bradley, whose maiden 
name was Esther Duffield. He was born A. D. 1737, and 
was a student of the Academy, which, in A. D. 1755, became 
the College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsyl- 

1 The following anecdote has often been printed. William Penn on the 
voyage borrowed from Duch6 about thirty pounds. After landing, Penn 
offered a valuable square of ground in the centre of the City, in lieu of the 
money “ You are very good, Mr. Penn, and the offer might prove advanta¬ 
geous, but the money would suit me better.” “Well! well!” said Penn, 
“ thou shalt have thy money; but canst not thou see that this will be a 
great city in a very short time ?” [The name of OucM does not appear in 
any of the lists of persons who came over in the Welcome.- Ed.] 

2 On the 2d of April, 1756. Jacob T>uch6 was chosen Colonel of the Regi¬ 
ment of Philadelphia County. He was Treasurer of the Lottery drawn in 
1753 to erect the steeple of Christ Church, and purchase its chime of bells. 


Rev. Jacob Due he. 


'ELz'lS 

•ID7N3 


vania. In November, 1754, the students of the Philosophy 
class gave a public exhibition, the first of the kind in Phila¬ 
delphia, in the presence of the trustees and a large audience 
of ladies and gentlemen. Among the distinguished persons 
present were the Lient. Governor Robert Hunter Morris, his 
predecessor in office James Hamilton, and His Excellency John 
Tinker, Esq., Governor of New Providence. The exercises 
were opened with a prologue by Jacob Duche, and concluded 
by a pert and humorous epilogue, spoken by a Master Billy 
Hamilton, a child under nine years of age. Both of these 
pieces were published in a London Magazine. During his 
student life, with a young man’s enthusiasm he became in¬ 
terested in the political questions of the day and was an 
adherent of the Anti-Quaker party, the feeling against the 
Friends being very bitter after Braddock’s defeat. 

On the 17th of May, 1757, he graduated in the first class 
of the College, 1 and in July, went as a clerk with Governor 
Denny to make a treaty with the Indians at Easton. He and 
William Peters afterwards showed their prejudices by testify¬ 
ing : That, when we used to meet Indians anywhere in the 
streets of Easton, or in our evening walks after business, they 
would generally accost us with this question in their broken 
English, “Are you a Quaker, a Quaker?” If we answered 
No;” they moved from us, looked very stern, and said 
We were bad man, bad man, Governor’s man.” But, if 
we answered in the affirmative, as we did sometimes to try 
1 hem, that we were Quakers, they would smile and call us 


1 His six classmates were : Francis Hopkinson , whose sister he married, 
Hugh Williamson. Paul Jackson , John Morgan , James Latta , and 
Samuel Magaw. The first two are well known in American History; of the 
others we learn the following :— 

Paul Jackson was of Scotch-Trish parentage, and became Professor of 
Languages. His Latin compositions which were published secured for him 
a reputation for correct taste and accurate scholarship. 1 

John Morgan , born A. P. 1735, became one of the founders of the Medical 
Department of the College, and he was appointed by Congress, in 1775, Medi¬ 
cal Director General. 

James Latta became a distinguished Presbyterian clergyman. 

Samuel Magaw became Rector of St. Paul’s Church, Philadelphia. 




/ 


Rev. Jacob Duche. 


“ Brothers,” and say, “We were good man, Quaker good man; 
Governor’s man, bad man, good tor nothing.” 

This year he decided to go to England to complete his 
studies. The Rev. William Smith, the President of the 
College, expressed his estimate ot the youth in these words: 
“ Jacob Duche is a young gentleman of good fortune, bred up 
in our College, under me. He has distinguished himself as a 
scholar and orator, on many public occasions, and from the 
most disinterested motives has devoted himselt to the church. 
He proposes to spend some time at the University in England.” 

Crossing the Atlantic, he became a student at Clare Hall, 
Cambridge, but in 1759, he had returned to Philadelphia, and 
was licensed as Assistant Minister of Christ Church, and its 
offshoot, Saint Peters, at the corner of Third and Pine Streets, 
which was begun in 1758, and finished in 1761, at a cost of 
£3310, to accommodate the congregation in that part of the 
city. 

His labors were commenced under some discouraging cir¬ 
cumstances. The Rector of the Church was old and incapaci¬ 
tated; Sturgeon, the first Assistant Minister, a graduate of 
Yale, was a faithful man but a poor preacher. In the choice 
for a second assistant the congregation was divided. A large 
portion was in favor of the Rev. W. McClenaghan, an Irish¬ 
man, who had been a non-conformist minister in Portland, 
Maine, and then at Chelsea, Massachusetts, where, in A. D. 
1748, he became an Episcopalian; he favored a strict inter¬ 
pretation of the doctrines of the Thirty-Nine Articles, insisted 
that the surplice should not be worn at the communion table, 
and Dr. Johnson, President of King’s College, wrote; “ lie 
affects to act a part like Whitefield.” 1 

1 In May, 1761, a convention of the Episcopal Clergy sent a remonstrance 
to the Presbyterian Synod, in session in Philadelphia, at the same time com¬ 
plaining that certain Presbyterian clergymen had interfered in the settlement 
of Mr. McClenaghan, and had sent a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury 
on the subject. 

The complaint was respectfully considered, and on the 26th of May the 
Synod expressed their sorrow that there should be an occasion of difference, 
“and were of opinion that the brethren complained of had acted without due 


Rev. Jacob Duche. 


While Duche was appointed and licensed by the Bishop 
of London, the disaffected compelled the old Rector to allow 
McClenaghan also to act as a third Assistant, and he was paid 
by private subscription. 

After Duche began his ministerial labors, he married, July, 
1760, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Hopkinson, and his 
father erected for his use an elegant and large brick mansion 
nearly opposite St. Peters’ Church, on the east side of Third 
Street, between Union and Pine, which was demolished forty 
or fifty years ago, to give place to modern improvements. 

His earnest preaching without notes, and distinct and fer¬ 
vent reading of the liturgy attracted good congregations. A 
letter written on the 8tli of August, 1760, states that Mr. 
Duche, “ that shining youth is so much more popular than 
Maecleaghan.” 

Soon after he entered upon his duties as Assistant Minister 
he was chosen as Teacher of Oratory in the College of Phila¬ 
delphia, probably as an assistant to his former instructor, 
Ebenezer Kinnersley, whose wife Sarah Duffield was sister 
of Duchy’s Church-warden Edward Duffield, and the niece of 
Col. Jacob Duche’s second wife. 1 

consideration, and improperly in that affair.” As the result of the McCle¬ 
naghan controversy, St. Paul’s Church, on Third below Walnut Street, was 
erected by subscription. 

1 Benjamin, the grandfather of Edward Duffield, settled on a large tract 
of land purchased in 1682, in England, of William Penn, by his brother-in- 
law Allan Foster, in the upper part of Philadelphia County. He was the 
first settler in the neighborhood, and was much troubled by the pilfering of 
the Indians. He built a house in Moreland Township, on an estate called 
Benfield, but about A. D, 1713 became a citizen of Philadelphia City. He 
died in May, 1741, in his eightieth year, and in the graveyard of Christ 
Church, corner of Fifth and Arch Streets, his tombstone still stands. Esther, 
his twelfth child, born A. D. 1701, become the second wife of Colonel Jacob 
DuchA 

Joseph, his eighth child, born A. D. 1692, was on the 7th of February, 
1747, buried in the same graveyard. Three children survived him ; Eliza¬ 
beth , who married Dr. Samuel Swift; Sarah, who became the wife of Ebe- 
nezer Kinnersley. Edward , born A. I). 1720, married Mary Parry, a 
grand-child of Owen Humphreys. He was one of the original members of 


llev. Jacob Duche. 


His first published sermon, printed by Benjamin Franklin 
and David Hall, appeared in 1763 with this title, “The Life 
and Death of the Righteous: preached at Christ Church, 
Philadelphia, on Sunday, February 13, 1763, at the funeral 
of Mr. Evan Morgan, by Jacob Duch6, M.A. One of the 
Assistant Ministers of the United Churches of Christ Church 
and St. Peter’s, and Chaplain to the Right Honourable, the 
Earl of Stirling.” 

In 1764, the Rev. Hugh Heill, once a Presbyterian minister 


the American Philosophical Society, and a delegate to the first General 
Convention of Prot. Episcopal Church, held in 1785, iu Philadelphia. 

Before the Declaration of Independence, he lived most of the year at 
the ancestral homestead, Benfield, in Moreland Township, Philadelphia 
County. While the British Army was in possession of Philadelphia, the 
family of Benjamin Franklin passed much time there. Sarah Franklin 
(Mrs. Bache), in Private Correspondence of Franklin, published in 1859, 
writes, in 1779, to her father, then in Paris: “Mr. Duflield’s family desired, 
when I wrote, to remember them to you. The youngest daughter I have 
introduced this winter to the Assembly. She is like her mother. The 
Ambassador [French] told me he thought her a great acquisition to the 
Assembly.” On the 14th of September, she again writes: “ I can assure 
you, my dear Papa, that industry in this house is, by no means, laid aside. 
Mr. Duffield has hired a weaver that lives on his farm, to weave eighteen 
yards, by making him three or four shuttles for nothing, and keeping it a 
secret from the country people, who will not suffer them to weave for those 
in town. My little girl has just returned from Mrs. Duffield’s. I think my¬ 
self lucky to have had such a friend.” 

Franklin in his will appointed as Executors, Henry Hill, John Jay, Francis 
Hopkinson, and Edward Duffield, of Benfield, in Philadelphia County. In 
the Codicil, he says, “ I request my friend Mr. Duffield, to accept moreover 
my French wayweiser, a piece of clock-work in brass, to be fixed to the wheel 
of any carriage.” 

The Registers of Christ Church furnish the following memorandum of the 
children of Edward Duffield. 


Name. 

Mary, 

Catharine, 

Sarah, 

Elizabeth, 

A son [Joseph], 

Benjamin, 

Edward, 


Birth. 

May 11, 1752, 

Jan. 1, 1756, 
Sept. 10, 1761, 


Jan. 13, 1764, 


Baptism. 

July 19, 1752, 


Feb. 3, 1756, 
Sept. 23, 1761, 


April 13, 1764, 


Burial. 

June 4, 1754. 
Aug. 23, 1774. 


July 28, 1784. 
April 25,1785. 
Dec. 15, 1799. 


Edward Duffield and wife, and his children, Sarah, the wife of Stacy Hep¬ 
burn, and his son Edward were buried in front of All Saints’ Church 










Rev. Jacob Duche. 


in New Jersey, then Rector of the Episcopal Church at Oxford, 
in Philadelphia County, wrote that Mr. Duche was enthusias¬ 
tic and mystical, a follower of Behmen and William Law. 

In easy and graceful style he wrote several essays on the 
letters of Junius, which were published in 1774, under the 
signature of Tamoc Caspipina, an acrostic upon the title of 
his office, The Assistant Minister of Christ Church and St. 
Peter’s in Philadelphia in North America. 1 

On Sunday, the 21st of April, 1771, he preached a sermon 
occasioned by the death of Richard Penn, one of the Proprie¬ 
tors of Pennsylvania, which was published under the title of 
“ Human Life a Pilgrimage: or the Christian a Traveller and 
Sojourner upon Earth.” 

On November the 7th, 1773, Duche preached a sermon at 
the dedication of the Episcopal Church, still standing above 
Holmesburg and known as All Saints. It had been built at 
the expense of persons residing in the neighborhood, one 
of whom was Edward Duffield, Duche’s friend and connection. 
To the congregation assembled on that occasion, Duche spoke 
of the edifice as “this plain, decent, and commodious building, 
erected at your own private cost.” 

The Rev. Richard Peters, who succeeded Dr. Jenney, having 
resigned in 1775 the Rectorship of Christ Church and Saint 
Peter’s, Duche was promoted to the position. 

When it was seen that a rupture between the Colonies and 
parent government might take place, Dr. Cooper, President 
of King’s College, New York, the Rev. Jonathan Boucher and 
Henry Addison, of Maryland, visited Philadelphia, and after 
conferring with the Rev. Dr. Smith, and the Episcopal clergy 
of the City, it was agreed that they would not lend their 
influence to weaken the power of the home government. 

This agreement could not, however, he kept, for Smith 
and Duchd were carried away by the more patriotic feelings 
of their parishioners. 

On Monday, the 5th of September, 1774, the first General 

1 The letters of Caspipina were reprinted in Bath, England, in 1787, in 2 
vols. 16mo., in London in 1791, in 1 vol. 8vo., and at Dublin in 1792, 2 vols. 
They were also translated into German and printed at Leipzig in 1778. 


Rev. Jacob JDuche. 


Congress of the Colonies assembled in the Carpenters’ Hall, 
Philadelphia. It was composed of fifty-one delegates, trained 
under different religious and commercial interests, yet roused 
to resist what they considered the oppression of Great Britain. 
On the next day it was moved that, before considering the 
important business which had brought them together, the 
session of the day following should be opened with prayer, to 
which Jay, of Hew York, and Rutledge, of South Carolina, 
did not, at first, assent, owing to the members having different 
denominational preferences. On motion of Samuel Adams, 
of Massachusetts, a Congregationalist, it was at length decided, 
that the Rev. Jacob Duche should be invited to officiate. 

In compliance with this request, on the morning of the 7th, 
Mr. Duchd appeared in Carpenter’s Hall in his robes, attended 
by his clerk, and read a part of the Morning Service of the 
Church of England, the clerk making the responses. The 
Psalter for the day included the 35th Psalm, which was pecu¬ 
liarly appropriate. Samuel Adams wrote, two days after, to Dr. 
Joseph Warren, soon to die in battle at Bunker Hill: “After 
settling the mode of voting, which is by giving each Colony 
an equal voice, it was agreed to open the business with prayer. 
As many of our warmest friends are members of the Church 
of England, I thought it prudent, as well as on some other 
accounts, to move that the service should be performed by a 
clergyman of that denomination. Accordingly the lessons of 
the day, and prayer were read by the Reverend Doctor Duchd, 
who afterwards made a most excellent extemporary prayer, 
by which he discovered himself to be a gentleman of sense 
and piety, and a warm advocate for the religious and civil 
rights of America.” 

John Adams in his diary entered the following: “Mr. 
Reed returned with Mr. Adams and me, to our lodgings, and 
a very social and agreeable evening we had. He says we were 
never guilty of a more masterly stroke of policy than moving 
that Mr. Duchd might read prayers. It has had a very good 
effect.” 

John Adams also wrote to his wife the enthusiastic descrip¬ 
tion of the first prayer in Congress, which has been embalmed 
in American literature:— 


7 


Rev. Jacob Ruche. 


“You must remember this was the next morning after we 
heard the horrible rumor of the cannonade of Boston. I never 
saw a greater effect upon an audience. It seemed as if Heaven 
ordained that Psalm to be read on that morning. After this 
Mr. Duche, unexpectedly to everybody, struck out into an 
extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man 
present. . . . Episcopalian as he is, Dr. Cooper himself 

never prayed with such fervor, such ardor, such earnestness and 
pathos, and in language so elegant and sublime, for America, 
for the Congress, for the province of Massachusetts Bay, and 
especially the town of Boston.” 1 

On the 10th of May, 1775, the Second Congress of the 
Colonies met in Philadelphia, at the State House, and as soon 
as the necessary officers were elected, it was ordered: “That 
the Rev. Mr. Duche be requested to open the Congress with 
prayers to-morrow morning; and that Mr. Willing, Mr. Sulli¬ 
van, and Mr. Bland be a Committee to wait on Mr. Duche, 
and acquaint him with the request of the Congress.” The 
next morning he appeared and officiated, and upon motion, it 
was “ Resolved, That the thanks of the Congress be given to 
the Reverend Mr. Duche, for performing Divine Service, 
agreeable to the desire of Congress, and for his excellent 
prayer, so well adapted to the present occasion.” 

On the 7th of July, 1775, Duche preached in Christ Church, 
before the First Battalion of Militia of the City and Liberties, 
from the 1st verse of the 5th Chap, of the Epistle to the Gala¬ 
tians on the Duty of Standing Fast. 

This sermon was published and dedicated to Washington; 
to whom he wrote, “ If the manner in which I have treated 
the subject should have the least good influence upon the 
hearts and actions of the military freemen of America, or 
should add one more virtuous motive to those, by which I 

1 In the Journals of Congress under date of Sept. 7, 1774, we find the 
following, “ Agreeable to the resolves of yesterday, the meeting was opened 
with prayers by the reverent Mr. Duche. Voted , That the thanks of the 
Congress be given to Mr. Duch6, by Mr. Cushing and Mr. Ward, for per¬ 
forming Divine service, and for the excellent prayer which he composed and 
delivered on the occasion.” 

Vol. ir.—5 


Rev . Jacob Ruche. 


trust they are already actuated, it will be the best return I can 
receive from my fellow-citizens for this labor of love. I have 
long been an admirer of your amiable character, and was glad 
of this opportunity of paying to you my little tribute of 
respect.” 

The 20th of July had been designated by Congress as a 
general fast-day, and on the 19th it was agreed, “That the 
Congress meet here to-morrow morning at half past nine 
o’clock, in order to attend Divine service at Mr. Duchd’s 
Church; and that in the afternoon they meet here, to go 
from this place to attend Divine service at Doctor Allison’s 
Church.” 1 Duchy’s Sermon, called the “American Vine,” 
upon the 14th verse of the 80th Psalm, was printed. 

On Monday morning, October 23d, 1775, Richard Henry 
Lee wrote to General Washington, “ ’Tis with infinite concern 
I inform you, that our good old Speaker, Peyton Randolph, 
Esq., went yesterday, to dine with Mr. Harry Hill, was taken 
during the course of dinner with the dead palsy, and at nine 
o’clock at night died without a groan. Thus has American 
Liberty lost a powerful advocate, and human nature a sincere 
friend.” 

Mr. Randolph at the time of his death was the President 
of Congress, and that body requested the Rev. Mr. Duclie to 
prepare a proper discourse to be delivered at Ins funeral. 
The Pennsylvania Gazette of the 25th, after alluding to Ran¬ 
dolph’s death on the Sundays previous, remarks: “ His remains 
were removed to Christ Church, where an excellent sermon on 
the mournful occasion was preached by the Rev. Mr. Duclie, 
afterwards the corpse was carried to the burial ground, and 
deposited in a vault, till it can be conveyed to Virginia.” 

1 Dr. Alison’s Church was the First Presbyterian, situated near Christ 
Church, the south side of Market Street, above second. Francis Alison 
was born in Ireland in 1705, and educated at the University of Glasgow. 
He at one time kept a school at Thunder Hill, Chester Co., Pa. He was 
the Rector of the Academy and Master of the Latin School that in 1755 
became the College of Philadelphia, and was then elected Vice-Provost 
of the College, and Professor of Moral Philosophy, which position he held 
until 1779, the year of his death. Duch6 was one of his pupils. 


Rev. Jacob Ruche. 


In the minutes of Christ Church and St. Peter’s, there is 
the following entry:— 

“ At a meeting of the vestry at the Rector’s, July 4, 1776. 
Present, Rev. Jacob Duch£, Rector; Thomas Cuthbert, Church 
Warden; Jacob Duche, Robert Whyte, Charles Stedman, 
Edmund Physick, James Biddle, Peter Dehaven, James Rey¬ 
nolds, Gerardus Clarkson, Vestrymen. 

“ Whereas, the Honourable Continental Congress have re¬ 
solved to declare the American Colonies to be free and inde¬ 
pendent States; in consequence of which it will be proper to 
omit those petitions in the Liturgy wherein the King of Great 
Britain is prayed for, as inconsistent with said declaration, 
Therefore, Resolved, that it appears to this vestry to be neces¬ 
sary for the peace and well-being of the churches to omit the 
said petitions; and the Rector and Assistant Ministers of the 
united churches are requested, in the name of the vestry and 
their constituents, to omit such petitions as are above men¬ 
tioned.” 

Four days after the adoption of this, Duche received the 
following note from John Hancock, the President of the 
memorable Congress, that had just declared the independence 
of the Colonies:— 

Philadelphia, July 8, 1776. 

Sir : It is with the greatest pleasure I inform you that the 
Congress have been induced, from a consideration of your 
piety, as well as your uniform and zealous attachment to thQ 
rights of America, to appoint you their Chaplain. It is their 
request, which I am commanded to signify to you, that you 
will attend on them, every morning at nine o’clock. 

I have the honour to be sir, with respect, your most obedient 
and very humble servant, 

JOHN HANCOCK, 

President. 

Sabine, in his History of the Loyalists, gives the following, 
as Duchy’s first prayer, after the Declaration of Independence: 

“ 0 Lord our Heavenly Father, High and Mighty, King of 
Kings, and Lord of Lords, who dost from thy throne behold 
all the dwellers on Earth, and reignest with power supreme 
and uncontrolled over all kingdoms, empires, and govern- 


Rev. Jacob Duche . 


ments, look down in mercy, we beseech thee, on these onr 
American States, who have tied to thee, from the rod of the 
oppressor, and turn themselves on thy gracious protection, 
desiring to he henceforth dependent only on thee: to thee do 
they now look up for that countenance and support which 
thou alone canst give: take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, 
under thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in council, and 
valour in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel 
adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of the 
cause, and if they still persist in their sanguinary purposes, 
0! let the voice of thine own unerring justice sounding in 
their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from 
their unnerved hands in the day of battle. Be thou present, 
God of wisdom, and direct the counsels of this Honourable 
Assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest 
foundations, that the scenes of blood may be speedily closed % 
that order, honour, and peace may be effectually restored, and 
pure religion and piety prevail and flourish among thy peo¬ 
ple! preserve the health of their bodies, and the vigour of 
their minds: shower down on them, and the millions they 
represent, such temporal blessings as thou seest expedient for 
them in this world, and crown them with everlasting glory in 
the world, to come. All this, we ask, in the name of Jesus 
Christ thy Son, and our Saviour, Amen.” 

On the 17th of October, Duchd informed Hancock by letter 
that the state of his health and parochial duties obliged him 
to decline the honor of continuing Chaplain to Congress, but 
some asserted that it was Lord Howe’s influence more than 
his poor health which induced the resignation. 

Congress requested the President to thank him for “the 
devout and acceptable manner in which he discharged his 
duty,” and presented him with one hundred and fifty dollars. 
On the 30th of October, the following was read by the Se¬ 
cretary of Congress, u Mr. Duche presents his respectful com¬ 
pliments to Mr. Hancock, and begs him to acquaint the 
honourable Congress that he is much obliged to them for the 
kind manner in which they have expressed their approbation 
of his services. As he accepted their appointment from 


! 


Hev. Jacob Duche. 


motives perfectly disinterested, he requests Mr. Hancock to 
put the one hundred and fifty dollars into the hands of the 
Board of War, or of any other Board he may think proper, 
to be applied by them to the relief of the widows and children 
of such of the Pennsylvania officers, as have fallen in battle 
in the service of their Country.” 

When the British troops approached Philadelphia, in 1777, 
Duclie’s timid nature made him despondent, and he decided 
to remain in the city should they enter it and accept of such 
clemency as should be extended to him. On the Sunday fol¬ 
lowing the occupation of the city he officiated in Christ Church, 
using the established form of worship and praying for the 
king. This prompt act of apostasy did not shelter him 
entirely from the feeling created by his former course, and 
as he left the church he was arrested at the door “ by an 
officer and conducted to jail under the immediate command 
of Sir William Howe. He remained there one night only; 
his friends having in the mean time made known his change 
of sentiments.” 

Ten days after his release from prison he addressed a letter 
to Washington of such a pusillanimous character, that the 
sentiments it expresses and the confession which it makes are 
evidences of the severe trials to which his shrinking disposi¬ 
tion had been subjected; to consider them otherwise is to 
believe, that when he uttered his earnest appeals to Heaven, 
in behalf of Congress and the cause which it upheld, he pol¬ 
luted his holy calling and was guilty of an act so profane that 
the mind naturally seeks a more charitable interpretation. In 
his letter to Washington, he spoke of Congress as not fit to 
be his associates, and urged him with his army, to resume 
his allegiance to the Crown. He protested that he had always 
abhorred the idea of separation from the mother country; that 
a few days after the fatal Declaration of Independence he had 
received Mr. Hancock’s letter acquainting him that he was 
appointed Chaplain to the Congress; that he was surprised 
and distressed at an event which he was not prepared to ex¬ 
pect, and that being obliged to give an immediate attendance, 
without the opportunity of consulting his friends, he easily 


Rev. Jacob Duche. 


accepted the appointment. This letter was conveyed to 
Washington, by Mrs. Ferguson, an accomplished loyalist, 
the daughter of Dr. Thomas Graeme, of Graeme Park, Mont¬ 
gomery County. The General in a letter to Congress alluded 
to the communication, in these words: “To Mr. Duchy’s 
ridiculous, illiberal performance I made a very short reply, 
by desiring the bearer, Mrs. Ferguson, of Graham Park, if 
she did, hereafter, by any accident meet with Mr. Duchd, to 
tell him I should have returned it unopened, if I had had 
any idea of its contents.” To Francis Ilopkinson, Washing¬ 
ton wrote, “ I am still willing to suppose that it was rather 
dictated by his fears than by his real sentiments. ... I 
never intended to make the letter more public than by laying 
it before Congress. I thought this a duty which I owed to 
myself.” 

When Francis Ilopkinson, a Signer of the Declaration of 
Independence, and a member of Congress, read this letter from 
his sister’s husband, he was overwhelmed with mortification, 
and felt that it must have been written while a bayonet was 
pointed at the breast of his brother-in-law. His letter to 
Duchd at the time is a noble record of patriotism and 
fraternal affection; after pointing out the weakness he had 
been guilty of, and the censure to which he had exposed 
himself, Ilopkinson said: “ I tremble for you, for my good 
sister, and her little family, I tremble for your personal safety. 
Be assured I write this from true brotherly love. Our inti¬ 
macy has been of a long duration, even from our early youth ; 
long and uninterrupted without even a rub in the way ; and so 
long have the sweetness of your manners and the integrity of 
your heart fixed my affections.” 

A letter published in the Hew Jersey Gazette, written Dec. 
24, 1777, has the following, “We hear that on Friday last 
Lord Cornwallis, General Cliveland, Sir George Osborne, and 
the Rev. Jacob Duchd sailed from Philadelphia.” The object 
of his visit to England was to appease whatever feeling existed 
in the minds of his superiors in the Church on account of his 
having acted as Chaplain to Congress. 


I 


Rev. Jacob Ruche. 


Mrs. Duchd subsequently proceeded, with her children, to 
Yew York, but owing to ill health did not then proceed to 
England, and on the 9th of June, 1779, her brother Francis 
Hopkinson asked permission of the Executive Council of 
Pennsylvania for her return. In the spring of 1780 she again 
went to Yew York, and from thence to England, and in 
December, the Pennsylvania Assembly resolved: “ That the 
Honourable Thomas McKean, Chief Justice of this Common¬ 
wealth, be permitted to occupy and possess the house and lot, 
with the appurtenances thereof, which was the property of 
Rev. Jacob Duchd, the younger.” 

Mr. Duchd, in 1779, published two volumes of Sermons, 
dedicated to Lady Juliana Penn, daughter of the Earl of 
Pomfret, and widow of Thomas Penn, who had honored his 
early youth with her kind countenance and protection. The 
design of the frontispiece to each volume was furnished by his 
friend and fellow Pennsylvanian, the distinguished historical 
painter to the King, Benjamin West. The engraving of 
Angels appearing to the Shepherds was copied from the 
painting in Rochester Cathedral. In time he received an 
appointment of Secretary and Chaplain of an Asylum of 
Female Orphans. Every year he became more interested in 
the visions of Swedenborg. 

After peace was declared he wished to return to Philadel¬ 
phia, and wrote to Washington disclaiming having intention¬ 
ally sought to give him a moment’s pain, or to have advised 
an act of base treachery from the thought of which his 
soul would have recoiled. He asked him to forgive what a 
weak judgment but a very affectionate heart once presumed 
to advise. The purport of this letter was no doubt to ask 
the influence of Washington, in furthering his wish to return 
to his native country; and so it was understood by the Gene¬ 
ral, who in reply said that if that event depended upon his 
private voice it would be given in favor thereof with cheerful¬ 
ness, but that the question must rest with the authorities of 
Pennsylvania. His friends did not think it was wise to 
encourage him in his wish, until the acerbities caused by the 
Revolution and his defection were mollified, and his aged 


Rev. Jacob Ruche. 

father then went to him, and in 1788 died at Lambeth, near 
London. 1 

His son Thomas was a student of West, and was an artist 
of some ability. 

John Pemberton, a distinguished minister of the Society of 
Friends, and a fellow Philadelphian, who was at London in 
1789, found Duchy’s mind much confused by the constant 
reading of the writings of Behmen and Swedenborg. He 
relinquished all church preferments, not thinking it right to 
receive money for preaching. His wife and two daughters 
were devoted Christian women. While in London, one 
of Pemberton’s friends assisted in nursing the young artist 
Thomas Duche in his last sickness, caused by the bursting of 
a bloodvessel. On March 31, 1789, calling at his father’s 
house for the purpose of watching by the bedside, the Rev. 
Mr. Duchd met him with a smile and said, “ He is well, he is 
happy, and I am happy. He died about half an hour ago, 
and departed most gloriously.” 

Pemberton writes from Philadelphia, in August, 1790, to a 
fellow religionist, “ I am glad to find my countryman, Jacob 
Duche, was so sustained under the great trial experienced. 
My love to him and wife. I wish to see him through all 
mixtures, and to become truly simple, and open to the instruc¬ 
tion of the * still small voice.’ This will settle his mind, and 
give him more true wisdom and instruction than many volumes 
of books, and dipping into mysterious writings, that may and 
does tend more to perplex than to edify.” 2 

During the latter part of his residence in England, he was 
quite different in his ways from other clergymen. One Sun¬ 
day he was invited to preach in St. Paul’s Cathedral. Another 
minister read the Communion Service, and while they were 
singing, Duchd entered the pulpit, laid his written sermon on 

1 In the Gentleman’s Magazine, of London, for 1788, is the following: 
“ Aged 80. Sept. 28, Jacob Duch6, Esq., late of Philadelphia, and father 
of the Rev. Mr. Duch6, Chaplain to the Asylum. 

8 Thomas Spence Duch6, only son of Rev. Jacob Duch6, was born at 
Philadelphia. His portrait of Bishop Seabury, engraved by Sharpe, is 
dedicated to Benjamin West, by his friend and pupil. He was, at the time of 
his death, 26 years and G mos. of age; he was buried in Lambeth Churchyard. 


JRcv. Jacob JDuche. 

( 

the cushion, and knelt in silent prayer. While thus engaged, 
he felt that he ought not to preach that sermon. Arising, he 
laid it aside, took a text from the epistle of the day, and 
preached as the Spirit prompted. 

In 1787 he was present at Lambeth, when his old associate 
William White was consecrated as one of the first Bishops 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of 
America. He returned to Philadelphia in May, 1792, and 
for a few weeks was, with his family, the guest of his friend 
Bishop White, who wrote: “ During their being with me, 
there took place the interesting incident of his visit to Presi¬ 
dent Washington; who had been apprized of and consented 
to it; and manifested generous sensibility, on observing on the 
limbs of Mr. Duchd, the effects of a slight stroke of paralysis 
sustained by him in England.” His wife died in 1797, 1 and 
the next year he was interred by her side in St. Peter’s Church¬ 
yard. Says the inscription upon the marble tablet:— 

u 0n Wednesday morning, January 3d, 1798, the Rev. Jacob 
Duche passed from his temporal to his eternal and angelic life, 
aged 59 years, 11 mos., 3 days.” 

His friends could not mourn his departure. In the lines 
attributed to Isaac Watts— 

“ Softly his fainting head he lay 
Upon his Maker’s breast; 

His Maker kissed his soul away, 

And laid his flesh to rest.” 


1 The following obituary is in the June number of the Gentleman’s Maga¬ 
zine for 1797 :— 

“In the city of Philadelphia, North America, Mrs. Duch6, wife of Rev. 
Jacob Duch6, formerly Chaplain of the Asylum in St. George’s Fields. 

“This lady met with her death, in the following uncommon manner: while 
opening a sash window, the sand-bag upon the window fell on, and struck the 
back part of her head with such violence that she survived but few hours. 

“ In the circle of her acquaintance, both here and in America, she will be 
as sincerely lamented, as she was deservedly esteemed and affectionately 
admired. She was a most sincere and practical Christian, of a meek temper, 
the product of an improved mind, a communicative disposition, and an affec¬ 
tionate heart. Unknown to the world, she shone in the narrower but im¬ 
portant sphere of domestic life, in an eminent degree, finding her happiness 
at home.” 













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